bushrangers

Noun

bushranger (plural bushrangers)

1. (Australia, historical) A convict or outlaw who escapes to the bush to avoid capture; a roving bandit who lives in the bush.
   • We each discharged a shot in the direction of the explosion by the bushrangers, for we had no other guide in aiming, owing to the night being so very dark, which was rendered denser by the mizzling rain which had been falling all day.1892, Henry Parkes, Fifty Years in the Making of Australian History, volume 1, page 217
2. (Australia, obsolete) A person skilled in bushcraft.
   • Mr Hovell lacks all the qualities befitting a bushranger.1824, The Australian, quoted in 1966, Sidney J. Baker, The Australian Language, 2nd edition, chapter II section 2, page 31